Q+A With Mazaya Qatar Real Estate CEO Hamad bin Ali Al Hedfa

Real estate is a big part of Qatar’s development agenda: the country will plunk down more than $200 billion on property in the next 10 years as it prepares to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022, Deloitte estimated in a July report.

Mazaya Qatar Real Estate, founded in 2008 and listed on the Qatar Exchange in 2010, is one of the companies that’s hoping to profit handsomely from this growth, while also looking to make a name for itself internationally.

WSJ: The Qatari real estate market has performed fairly well even through the financial crisis. What does the future look like, and what are your biggest challenges?

Mr. Al Hedfa: Demand has always been going up, and the same for supply. But now we see in the real estate market that the demand has become discriminating. People used to just take anything that was available. Now it’s about choice. This puts pressure on developers and owners and investors. Now they ask what do you have? What are the facilities you have in that compound? Now it’s another game.

WSJ: You’ve built large housing developments and are working on a new mall. What other types of projects are you looking at doing in the future?

Mr. Al Hedfa: Qatar is an open market and there are lots of opportunities in any sector, whether it’s commercial, whether it’s entertainment, whether it’s residential. One of the things that we will maybe look at for the first time is education and the health sector. We’ve been approached by so many educational institutions from abroad that want to exist in Qatar and we are looking at some of those opportunities.

WSJ: The political situation has been unstable in the wider Middle East recently. Is that an issue for you?

Mr. Al Hedfa: For our local investments it’s not an issue, but we are not a local company. We are an international company. This has slowed some of our plans to expand in some of these areas.

WSJ: Have those investments been canceled, or are you still thinking about going into countries affected by the recent instability at some stage?

Mr. Al Hedfa: Absolutely. We’re looking at Libya, Egypt and other countries. We are looking at opportunities now even in Europe, in Turkey, in Bosnia, and in other areas, but we haven’t yet gone to the second phase of due diligence. One of my mandates is to make Mazaya Qatar an international player and not only a regional player.

WSJ: So you’re not afraid to put money in unstable places?

Mr. Al Hedfa: No. We see opportunity in crisis. Actually in Libya we are looking. We are not investing but we are looking at some opportunities to be ready when things get better. I wouldn’t invest now, but we are looking, and we are choosing the right partners to be ready when we think it’s the right time.

WSJ: What about investing in Dubai? It recently won a bid to host the 2020 World Expo. Does that present any opportunities?

Mr. Al Hedfa: We have land there, and now with the Expo I’m going to think about how would I develop it instead of just keeping it as a land bank. One of [the plots] we might develop into a lab. There’s a big health company there, and we’re going to them to develop it into a lab. The other is residential.

WSJ: Qatar’s labor record has come under the microscope recently, with reports about poor living conditions for low-wage workers who are helping construct some of the country’s biggest projects. Is this a concern for developers? Do you think changes need to be made?

Mr. Al Hedfa: I’m glad you brought this up, because I’ll tell you, I as a CEO of a company, I eat with my laborers. The last thing anybody should write about in Qatar is how we treat laborers. Unfortunately the international media have their own agenda. They don’t know Qatar. It’s part of your culture. It’s part of your religion. I can’t believe they are talking about this subject. Whether it’s a manager or laborer, there are always bad people, but in general we treat laborers and workers in our country like brothers, period, and we mean it.